28 December 2011

'Jana Gana Mana' Turns 100 Years Today

'Jana Gana Mana', the country's national anthem penned by Nobel Laureate Rabindranath Tagore, turned 100, as it was first sung on this day a century ago at the 1911 Calcutta Session of the Indian National Congress.

Written in highly Sanskritised Bengali in 1911 by one of the greatest poets of the 20th century, the song fired patriotism in every Indian during the Independence movement.

The song was adopted as the country's national anthem by the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1950. The anthem was first performed on December 27, 1911 at the Indian National Congress session in Calcutta when the outfit was associated with the country's independence movement.

Rabindranath Tagore translated "Jana Gana Mana" from Bengali to English in 1911 and also set it to music in Madanapalle, a small town in Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh.

After it was translated into English, Indian students took the song beyond the country's borders making it 'The Morning Song of India' and subsequently the national anthem.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's Indian National Army adopted Jana Gana Mana as the National Anthem, while Father of Nation Mahatma Gandhi had in 1946 said the "the song has found a place in our national life."

The song was selected as the national anthem of India in 1950 after considerable debate overruled Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay's popular Bengali song 'Vande Mataram' in the face of opposition from certain communities.